Chances Fading; A Great Prediction; Six Flags Decapitation

First, the weather. Our position between the dying MCS to the southwest and enhanced activity to the northeast didn’t prove too fruitful. Much drier surface dewpoints are creeping in from the northwest Saturday evening. There is a broken line along a boundary well to the northwest. That is the nose of a strong jet streak that will swing around overnight. If there is sufficient ingredients, then that would be the source of support for rain, t’storms or perhaps strong storms. But, that feature could swing to our northwest, though as noted previously, there was some indication that we might be in the right rear quandrant of the streak. Even so, there are several inhibiting factors that will perhaps mitigate anything worthwhile. Worth watching but not worth altering plans Saturday evening.

On This Date in History: The photo above is typically called “The Big Four.” It may be better called “The Big Dummies.” If you don’t know which one is President Woodrow Wilson, then shame on you. The guy with the big moustache is French President Georges Clemenceau. The one whose face you cannot see if British Prime Minister David Lloyd George who is talking to Italy’s Vittorio Orlando. Wilson had his 14 points at the end of World War I. This was his outline of what to acheive in a peace treaty. But Clemenceau wanted big reparations against Germany and make Germany the scaepgoat for the war. They ended up with something closer to what Clemenceau wanted. On June 5, 1919 British Economist John Maynard Keynes resigned his position at the Paris Peace Conference representing the British Treasury. He said that the harsh terms of the treaty would result in collapse of Germany, a revolution and followed by a later war involving Germany that would destroy that “civilization and progress of our generation.” He later wrote a book about it.

The “Big Four” went ahead and forced Germany to sign the Treaty of Versailles on this date in 1919.

Keynes’ forecast was right on target for most historians agree, the seeds of World War II that destroyed much of Europe, parts of the Middle East and parts of Asia were sewn on this very date in the form of a “Peace Treaty.” It was perhaps better called a declaration of a future war. Keynes went on to live with a stellar reputation and continue his claim that the idealistic President Wilson was “the greatest fraud on earth.” Let us hope that should we get another idealistic president that future events would not necessitate the same analysis.

Decapitation at Six Flags Over Georgia: After Six Flags’ Kentucky Kingdom had the incident last year in which the young girl had her feet severed, a teenager got his head removed by a roller coaster at Six Flags’ Atlanta park. This one clearly the park goer’s fault, but it could be devastating to Six Flags nonetheless. Here’s the story: